[Dev] Repair system problems

[Colt47]

The focus on player driven repairs is, intriguingly enough, the primary issue with the entire system. It's a stick approach to creating dependence on other players instead of the more carrot approach of having players making items that other players need. Also, thanks to the difficulties of leveling DoH classes the number of people who can actually do repairs is limited to the long term players or those who specifically play the game to craft (most long term players stick within their LS while the people who devote themselves specifically to gathering and crafting seem fairly rare).

What they could do to fix it is just make the player repairs more of a convenience than a requirement, which can be achieved by making the NPC repairs 100% and decrease the cost to something like 2 or 3x the cost of a dark matter of the appropriate grade. SE could probably decrease the cost of the dark matter further if they make the materia system an NPC service, thus taking some of the pressure off of repairs as being the primary gil sink, which could likewise decrease the cost of npc repairs based upon the dark matter.

Also, do any crafters enjoy repairing other peoples gear? Unlike making items that can be sold at ones convenience, repairs have to happen on the spot, which means the craftsman in question has to sit around in a city or just be lucky enough to hear someone desperately looking for a fix. Not to mention in the long term once someone is known to be making a business out of repairing gear that individual isn't going to be able to get very far in a city without being asked by several people.